-DATE-
19810521
-YEAR-
1981
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
SPEECH
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
PARIS MEETING ON SOUTH AFRICA
-PLACE-
PARIS
-SOURCE-
HAVANA DOMESTIC SERVICE
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19810521
-TEXT-
TEXT OF CASTRO MESSAGE TO PARIS MEETING ON SOUTH AFRICA
FL211242 Havana Domestic Service in Spanish 1045 GMT 21 May 81
[Text of message from Fidel Castro, president of the Cuban Councils of
State and Ministers and chairman of the Nonaligned Countries Movement, to
the 20-27 May International Conference on Sanctions Against South Africa in
Paris, delivered by Cuban delegate Jesus Montane at the opening
session--read by announcer]
[Text] Mr Chairman of the International Conference on Sanctions Against
South Africa; Messieurs delegates:
The holding of the International Conference on Sanctions Against South
Africa in the present international circumstances has a very high political
and moral significance for all mankind. The fact that representatives from
other inter-governmental organizations, many non-governmental organizations
and personalities from all continents are also participating in this
conference convoked in accordance with the corresponding resolution of the
UN General Assembly, confers extraordinary authority to its deliberations
and agreements.
Since its inception, the Nonaligned Countries Movement has inequivocally
and firmly condemned the apartheid policy practiced by South Africa and
deemed this policy as a very serious violation of the UN charter and the
universal declaration of the rights of man. The decisions of the recent
meeting of the coordination bureau held in Algiers forcefully underscored
that position which Cuba once again reaffirms in its capacity as chairman
of the movement.
The struggle against apartheid has become a deep-felt cause for the
international community. The outcry for the eradication of this horrible
system whose very existence is a crime against mankind has reached
universal proportions. The resolutions adopted at the 35th period of
sessions of the UN General Assembly so demonstrate. This is also confirmed
by the increasingly frequent denunciations of many non-governmental
organizations and of persons of various persuasions concerned about the
brutal and threatening policy practiced by the racist state.
Condemnation of apartheid is inseparably bound to the condemnation of
certain Western powers, the U.S. Government in particular, whose economic,
technological and military cooperation with South Africa, variously
concealed, is what has allowed the system of apartheid to survive to this
date. It is the fundamental cause for the aggressive policy of the Republic
of South Africa, a veritable state terrorism independent of southern Africa
and the region's national liberation movements, and is what has enabled the
racists' access to the nuclear technology with which they are trying to
exert a real blackmail over all the African continent and create an area of
tension posing serious danger for world peace.
The international community has recently attended a meeting of the UN
Security Council at which global and obligatory sanctions against South
Africa were requested in behalf of the Nonaligned Countries Movement and
the OAU for South Africa's continued and illegal occupation of Namibia, a
territory whose independence is the responsibility of the UN organization.
Though expected, the veto of the Western powers that are permanent members
of the Security Council to the proposed sanctions was no less monstrous.
The international community is today facing a brutal and arrogant challenge
that it cannot evade or leave without an adequate answer.
Despite the support of some Western powers, particularly of the U.S.
Government, which has shamelessly proclaimed the Pretoria regime as a
traditional ally and supplier of important strategic minerals that they
cannot forsake, the South African racists are now more isolated than ever,
they are more repudiated than ever and the liberation movements in Namibia
and South Africa are developing and strengthening in their struggle against
the criminal system of apartheid.
The apartheid regime is a historical anachronism this late in the 20th
century that is irremediably doomed to disappear. There is no force in the
world now or ever capable of perpetuating this system indefinitely and,
sooner or later, it will disappear.
In the name of the Nonaligned Countries Movement and the government and
people of Cuba, we reaffirm our unshakable solidarity with the struggle of
the patriots of Namibia and South Africa for their freedom and
independence, for the total elimination of the system of apartheid and for
the establishment of a truly democratic society where both peoples may
exercise the sacred right to self-determination and the enjoyment of the
freedoms provided by international law.
We wish you the greatest success in the conference's work. We are confident
that it will be an important step in the growing mobilization of the
international community toward adopting increasingly effective measures to
achieve this noble endeavor.
-END-